Open Hearts ~ Open Minds ~ Open Doors
THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, SIMI VALLEY
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Open Hearts ~ Open Minds ~ Open Doors THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, SIMI VALLEY
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The United Methodist Church News In Brief News In Brief, June 3, 2005 Brief items for use in local church newsletters prepared by United Methodist News Service Recognizing the importance of health—in body, mind and spirit—will be a focus of several United Methodist agencies during the next few years. United Methodist Communications will help coordinate that focus by providing a communications strategy, which will include the creation of a Web site and finding ways to link people with volunteer opportunities and models of health-related programs. Denominational representatives met in early May in Washington to start shaping this focus on health and wholeness. The United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits adopted “health as wholeness in mission” when it realized that clergy were making a higher than usual number of health and disability-related insurance claims, according to Barbara Boigegrain, the agency’s chief executive. The executive board of the National Council of Churches has called on fast food chains to follow the lead of Taco Bell to guarantee the human rights of farm workers in their supply chains. Workers picking tomatoes for Taco Bell are seeing a significant increase in their wages and the promise of improved working conditions because of a March agreement between the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and Yum Brands. The NCC now looks to McDonald’s, Burger King and Subway to walk with the CIW and their allies into a new future, so that the human rights of farm workers throughout the fast-food industry will be similarly ensured. The Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church will hear oral arguments in the case of Irene Elizabeth (Beth) Stroud Oct. 27 in Houston. In a church trial last December, Stroud was found guilty of violating the denomination’s prohibition of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” in the ordained ministry. Then serving as associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Germantown in Philadelphia, she lost her clergy credentials but remained on staff as a layperson. On April 29, however, the denomination’s Northeastern Jurisdiction Committee on Appeals overturned the trial court’s verdict and penalty, citing legal errors, and restored Stroud’s clergy standing. The next week, Bishop Marcus Matthews of the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual (regional) Conference, which conducted the trial, filed an appeal of the jurisdictional committee’s decision with Judicial Council, the denomination’s top court. The Race to Reach Out: Connecting Newcomers to Christ in a New Century, written by Douglas T. Anderson and Michael J. Coyner and published by Abingdon Press, has been voted the 2004 Best Outreach Resource in the area of Church Connection by the readers and editors of Outreach (May/June 2004). Outreach magazine, published bi-monthly, reports the ideas, insights and stories of today’s Christian church. Douglas T. Anderson is a clergy member of the North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church, currently serving as executive director of the Bishop Reuben Job Center for Leadership Development. Michael J. Coyner became bishop of the Indiana Area in September 2004. He was elected to the episcopacy in 1996 by the North Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church and served eight years as bishop of the Dakotas Area before being assigned to Indiana. He is the author of Making a Good Move and Prairie Wisdom, also published by Abingdon Press. Students made global and local connections exploring the diversity of the United Methodist Church as they considered their own voice within the church at Student Forum 2005, held at Millsaps College, May 27-29. The theme of the Memorial Day weekend gathering, “Thy Kin-dom Come, Becoming the Body of Christ,” spoke to connections as some 375 students, campus ministers, young seminarians, United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry staff, and workshop leaders worshipped, sang, prayed, and considered resolutions introduced by delegates to the conference of the United Methodist Student Movement. *********************** United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org |
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